A powerful bomb went off on the grounds of a government-run hospital in the southwestern Pakistani city of Quetta on Monday, killing at least 42 people and wounding dozens, police said.

The blast took place shortly after the body of a prominent lawyer killed in a shooting attack earlier in the day was brought to the hospital, said senior police official Zahoor Ahmed Afridi, though it was unclear if the two events were in any way connected.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the blast, which struck at the gates of the building housing the emergency ward, on the hospital grounds.